https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/SpiritualButNotReligious.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n\tby Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
Text: Romans 10:1-3<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nI. The paper had an article discussing how denominations were wrestling with a growing\ndissatisfaction with religion. In particular the focus was on people viewing Christmas as\npurely a secular holiday, but what caught my eye was this statement:\n A. “… many young people these days consider themselves spiritual but not religious.\nThey might believe in God or another ‘force outside themselves,’ but they don’t\nsit in pews on Sunday.” [Michael O’Connor, “Is Christmas a religious holiday?\nJust half say yes,” Omaha World-Herald, 19 December 2013].\n B. It was a strange coincidence because that same day I was asked by a preacher what\nto say when told by someone that they were “spiritual but not religious.” He had\nnever ran into that attitude before.\n
II. What do we mean by “religious”?<\/p>\n
A. The word religion<\/p>\n 1. It comes from the Latin, meaning to re-align; that is, to change your beliefs\nto align them with another\n
2. Religion is a set of beliefs, observances, and moral code<\/p>\n
B. All religion is not bad – James 1:26-27<\/p>\n
C. Some people look down on “organized religion”<\/p>\n
1. It means they don’t want any set rules, codified in anyway<\/p>\n 2. By the very nature of the statement, they are saying they don’t want a\nBible. They want to make up their own rules as they see fit.\n
III. What is meant by a spirituality that doesn’t include religion<\/p>\n A. Often people will claim that each person should have his own personal\nrelationship with Christ\n 1. It doesn’t matter what church you attend, or whether you attend irregularly\nor not at all.\n B. But what this means is that the individual chooses what he wants to believe and\nfollow.\n 1. It is the creation of a new “god” who is indifferent to his worshipers, who\naccepts the worship that the individual decides to give, and relates to the\nperson as the person decides.\n 2. Since what individual A wants in his god is different from B, each person\nis creating a personal idol.\n
a. It is no different than the household gods we read in the Bible.<\/p>\n 3. Isn’t it strange that people’s gods always agree with them. They are always\nsure that their god approves fo their behavior.\n
4. The result is always creating a god in their own image – Romans 1:22-23<\/p>\n a. If you ever heard someone say, “Well, my God wouldn’t …”, that is\nsomeone who has a God in his own image.\n
b. That is why we are commanded – I Peter 4:11<\/p>\n
IV. Can you be a Christian without religion?<\/p>\n A. Christ taught that one God, demands everything from each person – Matthew\n22:37-38\n
B. God organized a religion and expects people to follow it.<\/p>\n
1. Christ established his church – Matthew 16:18<\/p>\n
2. It founded upon laws – I John 5:2-3<\/p>\n 3. It is through following the laws, you have a relationship with God – I John\n2:3-6; John 14:15\n
C. The church is the fullness of Christ – Ephesians 1:22-23<\/p>\n
1. When people are saved they are added to that church – Acts 2:47<\/p>\n
D. God also established that Christians in a local to assemble as a church<\/p>\n
1. Not to forsake the assembling – Hebrews 10:24-25<\/p>\n
2. We see examples of Christians assembling – Acts 11:26<\/p>\n 3. Though violating the Lord’s Supper, note the terms used in I Corinthians\n11:17-20\n E. The purpose of the local church is for the members to edify each other – Ephesians\n4:16\n
1. Such can be seen in the acts of worship done together – I Corinthians 14:26<\/p>\n 2. Edifying fellow Christians is never considered by those who claim to be\nspiritual without being religious.\n F. Since the church is commanded, and we see that it was commanded with reason,\ncan anyone claim to follow Christ while disobeying Christ? – Luke 6:46\n
V. Christianity is about dying to self and serving others<\/p>\n
A. Died to self – Galatians 2:20<\/p>\n
B. Looking out for the interests of others – Philippians 2:1-4<\/p>\n
C. Those claiming to be irreligiously spiritual place self above all else.<\/p>\n
D. Let us instead be humble servants of the mighty God – I Peter 5:5 <\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Romans 10:1-3 I. The paper had an article discussing how denominations were wrestling with a growing dissatisfaction with religion. In particular the focus was on people viewing Christmas as purely a secular holiday, but what caught my eye was this statement: A. “… many young people these days consider themselves spiritual…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[1514],"class_list":["post-41369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-religion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":59539,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/services-canceled-due-to-christmas\/","url_meta":{"origin":41369,"position":0},"title":"Services Canceled Due To Christmas!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores Much is said this time of year about Christmas. Some scream about \"putting the Christ back in Christmas,\" while others bemoan the fact that retail stores are \"pushing Christmas out\" by replacing the term \"Merry Christmas\" with \"Happy Holidays\" in their ads. Still others grumble about the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59751,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/someone-writes-asking-about-christmas\/","url_meta":{"origin":41369,"position":1},"title":"Someone Writes Asking About Christmas","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne Goforth Hello Becky! I appreciate your good thoughts here, and certainly, I am not trying to encourage you to go against your conscience (Romans 14) or to observe Christmas in any type of way. I simply want to explain why I believe, as a Christian, we have the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/03\/christmasbells.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1353,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/observing-holidays\/","url_meta":{"origin":41369,"position":2},"title":"Observing Holidays","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is that time of year when one holiday after another is observed: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and finally New Years. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Usually this time of year also brings up the question of how we, as Christians, treat these celebrations? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many denominations do special events for these days \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Christmas being the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49609,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/religious-but-not-righteous-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":41369,"position":3},"title":"Religious But Not Righteous","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Warfel","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25633,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/only-an-appearance-of-religion\/","url_meta":{"origin":41369,"position":4},"title":"Only an Appearance of Religion","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Amos 4:1-5 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When you look at the religious world, there are many odd ideas about what constitutes a religious person. II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Exhibitionism as Religion \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Some people judge how religious a man is by the religious things that he does in public \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Matthew 6:1-6 - Some people\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8625,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/holiday-observances\/","url_meta":{"origin":41369,"position":5},"title":"Holiday Observances","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 30, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton It is that time of year again when one holiday after another is observed: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and then New Year's. As usual at this time of year, the question arises of how Christians are to treat these events. Should we celebrate them, or should we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/08\/holidays.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}